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Ben's Week In Review: September 27

The Tokyo Game Show was all sorts of boring, but strangely enough, I've never been more enthusiastic about the games that are headed our way. :)

God of War Collection - You GET or I will HUNT YOU DOWN

You know, even though it'll get a wonderfully warm reception and there are a great many people out there who are anxiously anticipating its release, I still don't think there's enough hype surrounding this Collection. I mean, I know we're talking about two "old" games, but let me just remind you all: they're two of the best games in history (just look at review scores) and that high-definition re-mastering is going to make each production shine like never before. Even though GoWII is already several years old and was only available on the PS2, it's still better than most titles released since, and that's that. Furthermore, with the announcement that the E3 GoWIII demo will be included, this package's appeal just got jacked up another notch. I own both GoW and GoWII of course, but you can bet your very last dollar that I'll be a proud owner of this collection, and if you decide to pass on it, I will hear about it. I'm very tired after the insanity of the MAG beta giveaways, the TGS coverage, and all the reviews we've had to do lately, but I will still summon the energy to do bad things to you, damnit. 'evil grin'

Of course, we all have our own personal preferences so I'm just kidding around. Even so, I will go out on a limb and say that God of War is one of those very rare franchises that are respected by just about everyone, and loved by maybe 95% of the gaming community. That's exceedingly rare, you know.

Er...so Halo 3: ODST is...a $60 expansion?

I own every Halo and I very much enjoyed playing every Halo, which is why I was planning on picking up ODST this weekend. But I always do my research and while the critical reception was mostly great (I think it's at like 86% at GameRankings), I started to notice a bad recurring trend in the reader reviews. The majority of those are usually trash, but I got the information I was hoping I wouldn't find: many are saying Bungie and Microsoft simply took advantage of the "Halo" franchise name and produced little more than an expansion pack...and still charged $60 for it. According to the IGN review, the campaign will only take a "leisurely 6 hours" to complete and with only two new (or remodeled) weapons, I'm not convinced it's worth the full price tag. I read about the new Firefight mode and it certainly sounds intriguing, but...$60? For this? I kinda get the feeling that any other game wouldn't get away with this so easily; ODST seems to be selling on the power of the game name alone. Now, if it was Halo 4, I wouldn't think twice; I'd just buy it and play it. But that's not what this is. Obviously.

Well, I guess it goes on the Christmas list and if I don't get it, I'll just wait for it to drop in price. Forgive me, but I fail to understand why anyone would rather pay the same price for this game than shell out for something like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. One is an entirely new adventure that shatters review scores and could very well redefine the nature of the action/adventure video game as we know it, right? And because Naughty Dog will keep making new titles, that franchise could very easily challenge Halo in terms of overall quality...

Personal gaming update

Like I just said, I had planned on playing ODST but now that I'm passing, I just keep moving through Katamari Forever, which almost never stops being fun. And I haven't yet had time to jump into the MAG beta - it's a little frustrating to hand out all those codes and never get a chance to use my own - so I'll do that this coming week. You can expect my hands-on preview just a short while after; I promise. But until Uncharted 2, I don't think there's anything else I absolutely need, although it bugs me that Brutal Legend comes out on the same day. Guess I'll just have to find a way to fit both in, along with all the reviews that will continue to assault us through the better part of November.

Ya know I was noticing a trend in it too. It seemed like everyone was kinda afraid to call Bungie out! Like prancing over the fact that it IS a $30 expansion pack! That really chapped me because your right, NO other game coulda pulled this off and had fanboys defending it. I love Halo but Im no lemming.

All the effort from a game like Uncharted 2 and to put up a "High Quality" game like this is just a slap in the face to gamers. Naughty Dog's master piece should outsell it but I'm afraid their are too many Master Chief underwear wearing zombies out there.

Im wondering whether or not buying an Xbox 360 for Forza...any advice? Waiting for GT5 is EATING me ALIVE!

@ Wage SLAVES, if you can fit it in your budget, get an Xbox 360 if you are interested in any of the games. You can get them pretty cheap nowadays. Lucky for me, my Elite was free and I use it to download the demos that aren't available on PSN and then purchase the games on PSN.

Well, considering my friend had a 360 that wasn't in use and I had my old gamertag that wasn't being used by it's current owner, I pretty much purchased ODST to try and replay the online. Under half an hour, I remembered why I quit playing the stupid game in the first place.

To justify my shitty rip-off purchase, I decided to get The Last Remnant.

Me and my friend played fire fight. And let me say this right out in open, it is awsome. I liked Halo 1 and 2 but i was a meh about halo 3. And as good as firefight is it's not worth $60. And i already beat the campain and it is crap. So basically you are buying firefight and a 6-7 hour campain. for. 60. bucks. Total rip off!

Hopefully when you download the damn update it doesn't take you as long as it did me, I has it at 99% and it froze 4mb before finishing and had to restart again after leaving it to download for over 7hrs, annoyed the hell out of me, but after that, it truly is worht it, extremely fun but still has a few bugs to work out

Nevr got to try out GOW1 or 2, the collection will be a day one buy for me just like the MGS collection last year

i bought Halo:ODST (i saw the reviews and thought it would be good) and it doesnt work on my 360 or my friends and because i opened the case gamestop wont take it back, i just wasted $60, well i guess ven if it did work it still woulda been a waste

I bought Halo 3:ODST on friday and I just beat it about 3 hours ago. I thought it was pretty fun, better then Halo 2 & 3 in my opinion. And firefight is to fun I was playing with my friends non stop for about 2 hours. But nevertheless I thought it should have at least cost $40 cause it has all the same multiplayer maps like in Halo 3 with only 3 new ones.

Is it just me or does anyone else think that MS is milking the halo franchise. They are releasing 3 halo game in an 18 month period, I don't know about you guys but to me that looks like they are desperate. Bungie is a great developer and it's sad to see that HIS franchise is owned by someone you don't work with anymore.

On the topic of GOW collection, I will be getting it, I want to give the series a try just to see if I would like the 3rd one.(that and the fact that I'm a graphics whore and I like the idea of taking some of the ps2 classics and giving them the ps3 treatment)

On an un-related note, does anyone else think that Sony is taking the wrong road with there motion controller? Why do we have to hold both the DS3 and the wand? Won't that kinda make casuals not want to use Sony's wand over the wii. I hope Sony doesn't force this onto all motion controlled games.Last edited by Charger7302 on 9/27/2009 12:55:03 AM

I've played the Wii twice...don't judge me! Its about as ergonomic as a remote control, yeah the thing by your couch that is used for pointing, not flailing. Imagine gaming with that remote control for hours...F-that!

I hate motion controls. They make me feel disconnected somehow, like a half dead appendage that just won't do what your brain is telling it to do. Either that or it was just Tiger woods. Mortal kombat was also unplayable to me. Especially when my friend was using the regular shaped controller and wrecking on me. Yeah, at least he had a good time...Last edited by Wage SLAVES on 9/27/2009 1:38:02 AM

I still play my Wii. Playing the Mertoid Prime Trilogy right now. Those Wii controls are great for it. I think this motion control thing can really work for Sony if they do it right. The motion controls shown off for RE5 hold a redeeming quality in them. RE5 was such a dissapointment but if they can improve it like they did with RE4 Wii Edition then that might help make up for some of that dissapointment. Wii controls worked great for RE4.

I do agree though, they need to change the look of those wands. They are horrid. They should just create a nunchuk like control instead of forcing us to use the DS3.

The wands aren't going to change because of the ball/light on the end being so important.Using a DS3, however, just doesn't work at all-looks crap, isn't confy, my kids had a try out and couldn't manage at all and it just seems such and amateur answer that noone without a PS3(and few with) will be prepared to go with them on this if they don't sort out a better answer for holding the analogue stick and a few buttons.

Why no "nunchuck" prototype? Why no mention of one?Why use the DS is it isn't what they intend for us? All points towards Sony making a massive mistake, counting kids(a huge part of the casual marklet) out of playing many of the games and putting off everyone else with something that loks plain cheap and slapdash. It's far from ideal and why would you want to use a DS in one hand as part of a pair of controllers when you could use JUST it better in the way it was intended!?

Pleeeaase Sony don't go with this as it is as you WILL get blown away by Ninty AND MS who will hot/have not asked people to use things meant for two hands in just one in an unbalanced and uncomfy manner. I assume Sony think it'll keep both their and our costs down but I tell you right now that if they don't make another Wand with an analogue or a nunchuck type partner to bundle with it then this will be a vast money loser.

Put simply it's not an attractive way to play and nor will it be comfy for many while being impossible for some. Epic, EPIC Fail if they think this will fly as it really won't. Never, imo.

i still dont get how just cuz M$ was gonna charge $30 for it. for the amount of content offered it sounds more like $20 at the most. any more than 19.99 and it was a rip-off. all the people that bought this new M$ just stole another $40 at least out ur wallet.

for 12.99 criterion added one section to the already existing game that was well over 5 hours worth of game play.

sounds to me more like M$ had nothing but some crap online dlc so they reboxed it, called it a game and ripped off some customers

to all the people that bought this "halo expansion" but pass on Uncharted 2 or a God of War collection or any other Sony exclusive... you are one dumb #$@*

and what if its not available to you?does that mean im excused, or do i have to fly to the US just to get 1 game?

"he campaign will only take a "leisurely 6 hours" to complete and with only two new (or remodeled) weapons"

i completely pissed myself laughing when i read that off IGN.they say that than give it a 9.whaaaaaaaaaa?????????the SP lasts 6 hours, it has 2 new weapons and it costs normal price.that warrants a 9?

i must say though it does have a few really fun spots.like that part where your in a banshee and you have to protect the larger ship.or the bit just after it where theres all these ships coming in and you have a rocket turret to take them down.i only bought ODST because the mag beta is taking so long and you cant play any games while its downloading.its adverging 20MB per hour you have to be kidding me.take dial up speeds, make them 1000 times slower and you STILL would have faster download speeds than what im getting with MAG.Last edited by ___________ on 9/27/2009 2:24:35 AM

Nonsense! Personally I am enjoying Uncharted more than MAG. I think I just miss the old Socom TACTICAL gameplay. At least a lot of the old SOCOM people are playing MAG giving it a little more Tactical feel...

my personal gaming update, ive been playing burnout paradise again and that game is so much fun i forgot why i got hooked the first time. i had orignally played it before they released all the updates and improvements and hadnt put it in and played in a while. my old file was also from when they did the trophy patch and i didnt get trophies for stuff i already did. just an excuse to delete the save and start new. i really cant believe a game that came out in the begining 2008 can change so much to what it is now. just finished all the smashes, only 8 more jumps, 8 more billboards and 1 damn event to find. im gonna try for the elite license ;)

Well I'm playing Forza III Demo which looks good, plus one of the worst games of all time,OF ALL TIME.....DAMNATION. of course I couldn't buy such a game, it was a gift and got to accept it.Last edited by www on 9/27/2009 7:15:27 AM

Katamari I'm wanting to pick it up just no funds just finished paying for demons souls collectors edition for my hubby since his birthday is in a few weeks. I just preordered the GOW collection getting it for the GOW 3 demo :) plus the trophies.

God of War 1 was insanely hard for me. All of the trying to keep your balance sections were hard and don't even get me started on trying to scale that wall with the rotating spikes (took me an hour). If I didn't have the Action Replay I probably would have given up. God of War 2 was a walk in the park. Even though GoW1 was hard it was worth it.

Why haven't they made an Action Replay or Gameshark for the PS3 yet? I know that people would cheat online, but they could have something like punkbuster to not allow cheating. It helps when you are in tough situations that are taking hours to finish in single player mode.

The first time I ever screamed at my TV was during those rotating spikes. When I finally got past it I was losing my voice. Can't wait to face that in high def. They'll probably give a trophy for passing that part...

@Newchef. How does Gamestop work on returns then ? If a game is broken how are you to know this before opening the case to put the game in your machine.

In my local Game shop in the UK if a Game is faulty they will replace it with another new copy for you as long as you have the receipt they should change it for you. Thats harsh if they wont change it for you.

I too have Halo ODST and I thought it was ok. I was enjoying playing it until I got other stuff to play but I will go back to it.

As for the God of War Collection I own both the original PS2 ones and they work fine if I can find the spare cash I will try and buy it but it will more than likely be off Ebay as it is not coming out in Europe.

mag sucks, its overrated and its not even clear what to do and its hard to play it and look at it when u just came form killzone 2, GoW on the other had i will looking foward to that re-release more that modern warfare 2

I asked my buddy about ODTS, he swore it was a brand new Halo. He got all "xbot" on me which is weird cause he was one of my only xbox friends who's not usually a bot.

I understand people like Halo, I just don't get continued following. It's almost as if bungie could wrap a turd in Halo packaging and the bots would eat it up. I liked Halo like 9 years ago. After the 1st one I was board. The gameplay mechanics feel dated. Even(dare I say)CoD has made some great leaps in gameplay that Halo has not and I'm no huge fan of CoD. The only thing Halo really has over other FPS's is vechicles. Not much else.

As for GoW collection, I have never played GoW so this collection is a nice treat for me. I preordered it when Ben first gave us the news. Can't wait.Last edited by Jawknee on 9/27/2009 11:58:56 AM

Yea I agree. I should have mentioned even vechicles don't make Halo any better for the most part. I just tried to give some credit where it's due. Seems most people want vechicles in their FPS's. Me, i couldnt care less.

ODST is no kind of value. Had they never mentioned expansions or DLC and sold it at 30 or 40 dollars then fair enough but fleecing your biggest series fans for content much of which they already payed for earlier, and adding just one ripped off MP mode, a tiny campaign with underdeveloped new ideas and just a pair of recycled maps as "new" is out of line.

I'm no FPS hero but even I got through the campaign in around 5/6 hours and am jubilant that I only rented the game-it boils down to $60 for a Reach key for many of my Halo loving mates who mainly feel a little put upon by MS and Bungie over all this.

The press and games sites that gave it a 9/10 are misleading the fans who'll think it's fair as other recucled packages would be bashed for this cheap tactic-so why not Halo ODST? Fans doing the reviews? Possible and likely in many cases as western gamers(who reporters/reviewers all are )are very often fans of Halo. Normal bias towards MS rateher than Sony in the western media as MS are the "local team" and Sony the away team plus MS often being partners with sites, owning sites, funding sites or merely being their biggest advertisers? Almost definitely as this is a tacit thing where noone does it knowinly but always refrains from upsetting the readers and losing their market and paymasters as well.

Whatever the cause I'm a bit annoyed that ODST got such a free pass over it's lack of value.

Anyone who's read my posts knows I'm not on the GOW bandwagon. But I've never denied it's an awesome game, so I will be getting the collection. I figure it's the best place to start before I eventually get GOWIII. I saw 300 for the 2nd time the other day, and it really got me geeked to play something like GOW.

I may actually get the GoW collection since my copy of GoW 2 was stolen from me recently, is nothing sacred?And I saw the ODST ripoff coming as soon as I heard what it was. How anybody can rationalize this pick-pocketing enough to get excited over this rehash is an xbot through and through.

I loved GOW 1, but I missed the sequel. So I'm really looking forward to the collection. Both titles re-masted in HD, with trophies, GOW III demo, and at a budget price - seems like a complete win.Last edited by Mr Bitey on 9/28/2009 9:08:16 AM